Current affairs documentary series. Degrees of Deception: Thousands of people in the UKhave bought qualifications from bogus online universities. Is it possible to verify if peoplereally do have the qualifications they daim? Simon Cox reports.(Repeated Sunday)

If I heard the trailer correctly, the bulk of this is coming out of Pakistan. The fake degrees cost up to £50,000. To add insult to injury, some of the "graduates" are subsequently blackmailed for thousands more.

‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Mr Justice Williams is overseeing the case at a trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London.

He began hearing evidence days after the Home Office published an experts' independent review into the application of Sharia law in England and Wales.

Lawyers say his ruling will have implications.

The judge heard evidence from Mrs Akhter, a solicitor who wants a divorce, and Mr Khan, who was involved in a property business and worked in Dubai, on Tuesday.

He is due to analyse legal argument from lawyers on both sides at a follow-up hearing in the near future.

The judge heard that the couple, who have a Pakistani background, had taken part in a "nikah" ceremony at a restaurant in Southall, west London, nearly 20 years ago and lived in Pinner, Middlesex.

Mr Khan said he had operated a property business. He told how a lifestyle involving "maids", "beautiful houses" and a "swimming pool" had come to an end in the wake of the 2008 financial "turmoil".

Mrs Akhter said the nikah ceremony was conducted by an Imam before about 150 guests.

She said Mr Khan had become her "husband" and he had considered her his "wife".

"From my limited understanding of Islam at the time it did comply with all the requirements," she said.

"I saw him as my husband. There was no question in my mind at all."

She added: "He always introduced me as his wife".

Mr Khan wants to block Mrs Akhter's divorce application on the basis that they are "not legally married" under English law and says they are married "under Sharia law only".

Barrister Paula Rhone-Adrien, who is leading Mr Khan's legal team, said issues being considered went to the heart of the understanding of the law of marriage and divorce in British society.

She said the judge's ruling was likely to be "considered in full" by Muslims.

An experts' review into the application of Sharia law was published earlier this month after being commissioned by the Home Office.

Prime Minister Theresa May had asked for a review when she was Home Secretary. She wanted to explore whether Sharia law was being applied in a way that was incompatible with domestic legislation.

A panel of experts, which included an academic and lawyers, said Muslim couples should be required to undergo civil marriages in addition to Muslim ceremonies to bring Islamic marriage legally into line with Christian and Jewish marriage.

‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Pictured: Newlywed, 22, who was stabbed to death as he walked home from a mosque after attending prayers A man stabbed to death as he walked home from a mosque was newly married Mohammed Nabeel Hassan, 22, was thought to have headed home after prayers He suffered several knife wounds and later died after being rushed to hospital Devastated friends have paid tribute to the young man, known by nickname Belo They say that the keen footballer was just 'in the wrong place at the wrong time'

‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

An English judge - hopefully unthinkingly - gave a Sharia flavour to his judgement of the Parsons Green bomber Ahmed Hassan. The National Secular Society has drawn attention to this diversion from British law. I don't think they'll mind my reproducing their article in full.

The National Secular Society has asked the lord chief justice to "ensure judicial office holders refrain from theological interpretation" after a judge told a terrorist Islam was "a religion of peace".

On Friday Mr Justice Haddon-Cave sentenced the Parsons Green bomber Ahmed Hassan to life in prison and ordered him to serve a minimum of 34 years. As he closed his sentencing remarks at the Old Bailey he told Hassan he "should understand that the Qur'an is a book of peace; Islam is a religion of peace".

"The Qur'an and Islam forbid anything extreme, including extremism in religion," the judge said. "Islam forbids breaking the 'law of the land' where one is living or is a guest. Islam forbids terrorism (hiraba). The Qur'an and the Sunna provide that the crime of perpetrating terror to 'cause corruption in the land' is one of the most severe crimes in Islam.

"You have violated the Qur'an and Islam by your actions, as well as the law of all civilised people. It is to be hoped that you will come to realise this one day."

In a letter to Lord Burnett of Maldon, NSS chief executive Stephen Evans wrote that the judge's remarks had "undermined the principle of judicial impartiality and the universal applicability of secular law".

"We have no doubt that Justice Haddon-Cave's remarks were well-intentioned. We do however consider them to be profoundly unwise. We therefore urge you to ensure judicial office holders refrain from theological interpretation and limit themselves to interpreting the law of the land."

Mr Evans said judicial office holders "must be expected to treat everyone equally before the law, regardless of religion or belief".

"There is no provision in English law for judges to base their judgments on anything other than the law and the facts of the case, as they objectively see them.

"Justice Haddon-Cave's remarks may give rise to the perception that Mr Hassan is being dealt with differently on account of him 'violating the Quran and Islam'."

Mr Evans said the judge had appeared to "imply that secular law is insufficient to justify the conviction and sentencing", with the risk of encouraging those who want parallel justice systems.

He said judges opining on religious matters in their official capacity could "give rise to a perception of partiality towards or against the religion, or its adherents" and undermine "the principle of neutrality and impartiality".

He added that the judge's "highly contentious" interpretation of Islamic texts risked "undermining public confidence in the judiciary and creating a negative public perception of the sentencing process".

And he criticised the judge's statement that "you will have plenty of time to study the Qur'an in prison in the years to come". He said it was not "the position of the secular authorities to encourage criminals convicted of religiously-motivated offences to engage in religious study".

"Judges should not promote the contentious theory that further religious study is the way to turn terrorists away from their hateful interpretations of religious texts."

Explaining the decision to write the letter, Mr Evans said: "There's no reason to think the judge had ill intentions, but his comments were wholly inappropriate.

"Religion is not the reason why it was wrong to plant a bomb on a packed tube train.

"If the judicial system is to uphold rights equitably, reasonably and fairly its arbiters must draw from the same secular legal sources and separate their personal view of contentious issues such as religion and politics from their decision-making. Judges are employed to uphold the law of the land impartially, not to interpret theology.

"We're simply asking the lord chief justice to make it very clear to judges that this must not happen again."

The NSS campaigns to protect the principle of one law for all, arguing that the UK's secular law should protect the rights of people in all communities and should not be undermined or supplanted by parallel religious systems.

In 2010 the society complained to the Office for Judicial Complaints (OJC) after Cherie Booth QC spared a criminal from prison , saying: "I am going to suspend this sentence for the period of two years based on the fact you are a religious person and have not been in trouble before. You caused a mild fracture to the jaw of a member of the public standing in a queue at Lloyds Bank. You are a religious man and you know this is not acceptable behaviour."

Following an OJC investigation Booth received "informal advice from a senior judge".

‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

A "traffic collision"? And "accident"?Yesterday in a mostly Jewish area a car mounted the pavement at speed and ran over several shopped preparing for Passover. We are not told any details about the driver, and we are are meant to believe it was an "accident"....

Meanwhile, the story of the Oldham stabbing has gone very quiet, nothing on Google News for a fortnight.

‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Two men have been shot in Luton, a large and diverse town in Bedfordshire, north-west of London.

Police were called to Portland Road, near Luton Football Club’s home grounds, at around 9:50 p.m. on Thursday, after reports that a 47-year-old man had been shot.

The victim, who turned out to be a local imam, was taken to hospital with minor injuries, but a second, 30-year-old victim was more seriously injured, having been shot in the face.<snip>“Officers are currently following a number of lines of inquiry, and anyone with information is urged to contact us,” said Detective Inspector Craig Laws, adding that the shooting as “concerning” but police were treating it as an “isolated” incident.

Curiously, Bedfordshire Police do not believe that the shooter and the victims knew each other, nor do they suspect that the shooting was linked to gang or drug crime, or that it was racially-motivated — significantly narrowing the range of possible motives.

‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

It has been revealed that two children of illegal immigrants are being paid £300 a week even though they are living in Africa with their aunt, The Sun reports

The father is still in jail facing deportation and the mother, who arrived on a holiday visa which changed to a student visa in 2012 lied about being abused and trafficked when claiming asylum in 2004. She was exposed as a liar and the claim was rejected. She is also facing deportation.

They have a seven year old boy and a baby girl and they will receive a total of £187,000 in benefits by the time they turn 16, the High court has ruled.

Both children were born in the UK but were taken off their parents when they were deemed unfit to care for them by the courts. The local authority will pay the boy £15,600-a-year until he turns 16 and the baby sister will receive £150-a-week until she turns 16 in 2033.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers’ annual conference was told this was tampering with schools' attempts to prepare youngsters for the modern world

Teachers are claiming that parents who are taking their children out of Religious Education classes because they don't want them learning about Islam are racist, it's been reported.

Concerns have been raised about mums and dads reportedly misusing their right to pull their kids out of classes at school, inhibiting their ability to explore big questions and critical thinking.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers’ annual conference was told this was tampering with schools' attempts to prepare youngsters for modern society in the UK.

It was told of instances where parents with prejudices including "including Islamophobia and antisemitism" wanted to remove their children from certain lessons or visiting places of worship - as apposed to instances where parents object based on religious beliefs.

The union is urging the Government to take steps in ensuring parents do not selectively prevent their children learning about individual religions, The Telegraph reports.

Concerns have been raised about mums and dads reportedly misusing their right to pull their kids out of classes at school, inhibiting their ability to explore big questions and critical thinking.

Oh, the irony! Unless, of course, the visits are to show how not to do critical thinking. (Hardly likely to be an exercise in compare and contrast - that would never do.)Note the conflation of religion with race, btw. Always a warning sign.

‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Note the conflation of religion with race, btw. Always a warning sign.

manfred wrote:Tributes" or sums of extortion can only been paid to "races", NS? Islam is NOT a true religion either, it is a totalitarian political ideology with a religious varnish. The uslim "ummah" is a community with state-like identity, and with political ambitions: to subdue and demand "tribute" from all outsiders.

I am simply unable to make out whether manfred is describing Islamic ummah as a race or as a religion or as something in between or as something outside the pale of both.So will you be able to clear up things a bit for me?

If special status could be granted to many states in India based on backwardness, then it can also be granted to remnant A. P which was deliberately rendered backward due to malicious policy of divide and rule.After division,percapita income of Telangana is Rs 20,000 /-more than that of remnant A.P.

The Islamic ummah is obviously not a "race"... Can you JOIN a race of leave one? Islam is a totalitarian ideology which has a pseudo-religious gloss. This is one of Mohammed's stokes of genius... He invented an ideology to give himself wealth, sex and power, and prevented analysis or criticism of of his teachings by making the claim that they had divine origin.

You can liken the "ummah" with the German people under Hitler... many supported Hitler to get rich or to get some other advantage, some were actually convinced of Hitler's teachings, and any who disagreed with him had to be quiet or face persecution and death.

Mohammed did the same thing, and the people he ruled over were much like those Germans. The only difference is Hitler based his legitimacy on being elected, and Mohammed based it on claiming to be a divine messenger.

many supported Hitler to get rich or to get some other advantage, some were actually convinced of Hitler's teachings, and any who disagreed with him had to be quiet or face persecution and death.

People on this forum had actually commented that Hitler increased productivity and decreased unemployment however he is still evil as he caused mass murders.

If special status could be granted to many states in India based on backwardness, then it can also be granted to remnant A. P which was deliberately rendered backward due to malicious policy of divide and rule.After division,percapita income of Telangana is Rs 20,000 /-more than that of remnant A.P.

A Conservative candidate for a London council, Karen Sunderland, has been suspended for "Islamophobic" tweets. Tweets, needless to say, that were made last year and have suddenly come to light just before polling day. Some would no doubt call at least one of the tweets incendiary but it looks as if they were made in response to other comments. Who can tell whether she was agreeing with someone or challenging them? Unfortunately, the Twitter account has been made private so who can tell whether the woman was provoking people or responding to provocation?

I'm not familiar with Twitter but it looks as though the posts have been removed or become invisible. There is, however, a Twitter storm against her - including one from the i newpaper (if I understand its origin correctly)

i newspaper‏Verified account @theipaper17h17 hours ago

Make sure to pay attention to Local Elections this week, and make sure to call out candidates like this https://trib.al/JOw8UY8

The image is an obvious reference to Islam and to the harmful myth that the religion is directly responsible for all terror attacks.

This isn’t true. Statistics published last year showed a 77 per cent rise in terrorist attacks committed by white assailants, fuelled by an ongoing rise in white supremacist terror attacks and the popularisation of 'alt-right' rhetoric more generally. Also, one of last year's most prevalent terror attacks was Islamophobic in motivation - Darren Osborne admitted driving into a Finsbury Park mosque to 'kill all the Muslims'.

Shoddy journalism indeed when a single attack can be described as "prevalent" but they also set up a straw man and attempted to demolish it with incomplete statistics.

Then there was

The months after Brexit also saw rates of religious and racial hate crime soar, whereas this year's 'Punish A Muslim Day' - which offered horrendous rewards to those willing to carry out Islamophobic hate crime - indicated that Islamophobic sentiment is still as rife as ever.

Ignoring their attempt to smear Brexit voters, the choice of the words "this year's" implies that Punish A Muslim Day is an annual occurence whereas it was probably a very limited trolling episode. "Horrendous rewards" though is absurd, since the letters offered only unspecified "points" with no physical, virtual or financial value. Seriously shoddy journalism or very shaky fakery?

BTW the Twitter storm has led some other Twitterers to applaud her tweets and urge people to vote for her. I've no idea what the politics in Lewisham are like so can't see what the net effect on her votes will be (although I can guess).EDITI've just spotted this claim, about The Independent, on Breitbart London

WhywasIbanned • 7 minutes ago

Anyone see that since the Independent online was bought by Saudi's I believe they now has a section solely for Sharia Law news.

‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

The case is going to court. I was going to say "watch this space" but it turns out that's not until November 26th so "mark your calender" would be more appropriate. The list of charges is interesting and rather puzzling.

Mr Parham faces:

One charge of soliciting to murder Two charges of sending letters promoting a "Punish a Muslim Day", encouraging the commission of offences Five counts of sending a hoax noxious substance Five charges under the Malicious Communications Act of sending threatening letters One charge of staging a bomb hoax

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-44656550The list seems to imply that he was only found to have sent two of the notorious letters, yet five or seven letters in total. The single charge of soliciting to murder would seem not to relate to the letters and must, along with the bomb hoax, be something I've not seen reported. I'm not sure about the hoax substances - perhaps the same as the threatening letters. I may have heard of one incidence, but it didn't get anything like the publicity the "punish" letters did.Maybe we shall have learnt more by December. Meanwhile it appears that he will have languished in jail for nearly six months without being tried and proven guilty.

‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Home Office had information on Rotherham grooming gangs in 2002 but failed to act, review finds

The government received information detailing the extent of grooming gang activity in Rotherham as far back as 2002 but failed to properly act on it, a review has found.

The National Crime Agency’s ongoing investigation has revealed that more than 1,500 girls and young women may have been abused in the Yorkshire town between 1997 and 2013.

A report by Alexis Jay exposed “blatant” failures by police and the Labour-run local council, where officials feared racism accusations at the time.

The independent inquiry said an unpublished Home Office research report from 2002 described the extent of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham and a series of criticisms over the response “that should have raised concern”.

But a large-scale inquiry was not launched until after a Times report on the scale of grooming provoked a national scandal a decade later.

‘Hindus and Muslims belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literary traditions. They neither intermarry nor eat together, and indeed they belong to two different civilisations which are based mainly on conflicting ideas and conceptions.’ Muhammad Ali Jinnah